The City of Sheffield Saints booked their place in the quarter finals of the National Shield with a win over EBL4 North rivals Mansfield Giants at Oak Tree Leisure Centre on Wednesday night. The Saints played their typical brand of unselfish basketball throughout a game in which they never trailed, and although the Giants fought hard in the final period, they couldn't close the gap and stop the Saints from taking their place in the last eight of the competition.

An Andy Turner lay-up and a Garnet Gayle 3 pointer gave the Saints an early 5-0 lead, and as the Giants struggled to find the basket, great defence and boxing out allowed the Giants limited second shot opportunities. Tilly Hackett drew contact inside and went to the line on three occasions, while James Sutton provided the Giants' only points in the first 6 minutes of the game. Gayle went to the foul line after Sutton picked up his 3rd foul, and then found Pete Olusoga under the basket for the first of his season high 31 points, to put the Saints up 17-6. Guy Renton picked up the slack for the Giants, scoring 5 points to bring them right back into the game, trailing 20-18 at the end of the first quarter.

The second period opened with a 14-0 Saints tear which knocked the stuffing out of the Mansfield team. Chris Law pulled up in the lane and hit the jumper, and Nick Savage, coming off the bench, scored and easy 2 as the Saints continued to move the ball against the Giants' zone defence. Gayle cleaned up on the defensive boards and drained another 3 pointer at the other end, while Olusoga also connected from beyond the 3 point line, and Savage scored a second easy lay-up to cap the 14-0 spurt in the first 5 minutes of the quarter. Mansfield big man Ben Coy stopped the Saints run with an 'and 1' play inside but the damage had already been done. Franz-von Shorter came of the bench with his best performance of the season so far, and scored all 7 of his points in the quarter, including a huge 3 pointer as the shot clock ran down. Coy and Renton managed to score a further 8 points between them but the Saints held a commanding 50-31 lead at the half.

The 3rd quarter was a slightly closer affair but the Saints managed to maintain their 20 point margin throughout. As the Giants began to get frustrated with the referees and with themselves, only good interior play from Sutton and Renton kept them in the game. Olusoga picked holes in the Giants' defence to finish close to the basket and a series of technical fouls from the Giants' bench allowed the Saints to stay comfortably in front. Turner and Hackett continued to work well inside, both going to the charity stripe, Turner nailing 4/4 in the quarter to give the Saints a 68-48 lead. Cross started to find his way to score 6 points for the Giants, but another Olusoga 3 and 4 more from the free throw line gave the Saints their biggest lead of the night at 78-54. Coy and Mansfield Captain Danny Richards pegged it back to 78-58 at the end of the quarter but the Saints looked confident going into the 4th.

The Giants exerted some pressure in the 4th and began to use their height advantage to good effect on the inside. Mzika hit a big 3 pointer for the home side, closing the gap to 83-70, but fouled out immediately afterwards, sending Gayle to the line who made both shots. The Saints determination to win the game was clear and after a scramble for a loose ball, Shorter found Hackett for 2 points which maintained the Saints lead at 88-77. With only 2 minutes to play, the Giants were always chasing the game and missed free-throws from the Saints allowed them to close the gap. As the Giants tried to pressure and trap, Gayle found Olusoga alone under the basket for 2, to give the Saints 9 point lead with less than a minute to go. Andy Turner was fouled and went to the line for the Saints 48th and 49th free throw attempts of the game. He drained one of them to give the Saints a 95-87 win and confirm their place in the Quarter Finals of the competition.

Scorers
Saints
Olusoga(31), Hackett(18), Gayle(17), Turner(11), Shorter(7), Savage(6), Law(5).
Mansfield Giants
Coy(16), Renton(15), Sutton(12)

Posted on: Friday 15th December

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